On Jan. 25, 2018, the Appellate Division, Third Department, issued a significant decision in Matter of Christopher YY v. Jessica ZZ, 2018 NY Slip Op 00495. Underlying the court’s determination is the conundrum which it describes as follows: “Application of existing case law involving different-gender spouses, addressing whether the presumption [of legitimacy] has been rebutted, to a child born to a same-gender married couple is inherently problematic, as it is not currently scientifically possible for same-gender couples to produce a child that is biologically ‘the product of the marriage’ [citations omitted].”

For the third time, a federal judge in Atlanta has tossed out claims against a Georgia sperm bank involving a donor it touted as a highly educated and multitalented but who was really a convicted felon with a history of mental illness.

The order issued Thursday by Northern District Judge Thomas Thrash Jr. closely mirrors two he issued last year, finding that Xytex Cryo International clients who bore children sired by the donor have no basis under Georgia law to sue for “wrongful birth.”

The dramatic growth of the databases is raising ethical challenges for the donor conception community. It has been recognised for some time that donor anonymity can no longer be guaranteed but this hypothetical threat is now very much a reality.

Donor conceived individuals are using genetic genealogy databases to match with genetic relatives and identify their biological parents, and there have been many success stories. There are now also a number of cases where people have accidentally discovered that they were donor conceived after taking a commercial DNA test. Some families who have used the services of a fertility clinic have learnt through DNA testing that the clinic owner substituted his own sperm for that of the father (see BioNews 931).

This photo provided by Matt White shows him with Jacoba Ballard, left, and Julie Harmon in New York before a television interview. The three one-time strangers have also reached out to 21 other men and women, all in their 30s, who’ve been linked through DNA tests as their half-siblings, which they claim is evidence that former fertility doctor Donald Cline is likely thei biological father. (Courtesy Matt White via AP)

ZIONSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Matt White remembers that day in September 2016 when a mystery began to unravel that would change his life.

It started when White read a news report that Dr. Donald Cline, a retired Indianapolis fertility specialist, faced charges for lying when he denied he’d inseminated unwitting patients with his own sperm decades earlier. He searched out Cline’s address online, recognizing it as the location of his mother’s former doctor. Then he Googled the doctor’s name. When a photo popped up, he was stunned: He looked like Cline.

Tyler and his half sister Heather. This is only the second time they’ve met. (Photo by Robbi Pengelly/Index-Tribune)

Growing up as an only child, Tyler Sievers was comfortable with solitude.

His mothers expected their son to occupy himself – and so Sievers became a creative and resourceful boy. For 18 years he lived happily as a party of one.

And then he sent his DNA to Ancestry.com, and got 20 half-siblings back.

He was conceived in March of 1999, using donated sperm banked at Pacific Reproductive Services in San Francisco. The donor was selected by his mothers from hundreds of options, using data that profiled each man’s broad particulars. Age, height, weight, eye-color. Medical history, family history, hobbies and skills. Sievers’ moms made their choice and his biological mother was inseminated. On Dec. 23 of 1999, Tyler Hammill Sievers was born.

The past year of my life has felt like some combination of an Oprah special and a binge-worthy Netflix series. I was born and raised as a (very proud) only child. My parents divorced when I was young, and although both remarried, neither ever had any other children of their own. My dad was married a total of five times, so I’ve had plenty of step-siblings—but not any blood relations as far as I knew.

Fast-forward to May of 2017, and in one click, my whole identity changed. After sending in DNA samples to learn more about my ancestry, I finally got results— and one click later I opened a Pandora’s box of siblings and went from an only child to a 39-year-old woman who had 17 siblings I didn’t know about.

Kianni Arroyo, who has made contact with 40 other people born to the same sperm donor father as her (Picture: Kianni Arroyo)

A woman whose father was a sperm donor has tracked down 40 siblings born to the same man, and is sharing her encounters with them online.

Kianni Arroyo, from Orlando, Fl, first began the project five years ago, when she was a high school sophomore.

She has since discovered four sets of twins, and siblings as far afield as Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Kianni, 21, is the oldest known sibling born to the donor, with the youngest a baby who is just five months old

Kianni, who works as a waitress, told Metro US: ‘I was raised just by my mom, and she’s always been honest with me about the fact that I was born to a sperm donor.

It allows women to share the motherhood experience from the stage of conception.

Getty images

More and more lesbian couples are having babies thanks to a super cool fertility treatment known as ‘shared motherhood’. What’s cool about it? Both women are involved in the process, as one’s eggs are used, and the other carries the child. I know, science is awesome.

New research carried out by The London Women’s Clinic, has revealed just how successful and efficient shared motherhood fertility treatment is proving to be. So here’s everything you need to know about the process. Plus, a success story from a couple who’ve become parents this way.

Pune: The parents of a 27-year-old man, who died of brain tumour two years ago, used their unmarried son’s cryopreserved semen extracted long before his death to have grandchildren. Fusing the semen with eggs of a matching donor, doctors created embryos and transferred them into a surrogate mother’s womb.

The woman, who incidentally is the man’s aunt, delivered healthy twin baby boys two days ago. Experts, however, have raised questions about the ethics behind the procedure. The man was diagnosed with brain tumour in 2013 while pursuing higher education in Germany.

When customers of Xytex uncovered the truth about one of its sperm donors, the disclosure set off more than a dozen lawsuits—exposing an industry that can shatter lives while helping to create them

In first grade, when John drew a picture of his family, there was no dad because he knew his biological father was a sperm donor. His two mothers had always been open about that. In the drawing, his birth mother, Wendy Norman, bounces on a trampoline. Janet Norman, his other mom, grades papers inside. His older brother, Kevin, plays video games. John stands alone at the top of the stairs. About a year later, he would threaten to throw himself down them.

She will never know her dad but little Haileigh Fleming has brought incredible joy to her mum. The four-month-old is Kellie-Ann’s miracle, conceived through IVF with sperm from a dead donor. The teacher, who took out a bank loan to pay for the treatment, has no regrets after failing to find a partner. She said: “Haileigh has got a huge personality and it is as if she already knows just how special she is. “I turned 40 just before I had her so Haileigh is the best present I could have wished for. She is my wee star, my tiny miracle and my greatest achievement.

A gay man suffering severe pain from cancer was mortified to discover he was only able to donate sperm to a female partner.

Logan Morton, 22, received the shock diagnosis he had acute myeloid leukemia in April last year, and after being warned the treatment could make him infertile, arranged to store healthy sperm through Fertility Associates.

Severely debilitated from the cancer, Morton asked a nurse to fill out the paperwork, and noticed afterwards that he was only given the option of donating his sperm to a female partner.

Thousands of Canadians use genetic testing kits to find out more about their ancestry and what it means for their health. But now some people who were conceived through sperm donation are using the testing services to track down their biological fathers – whether the fathers want to be found or not.Read more

There was a time when a man could anonymously donate sperm to a couple or woman trying to conceive and everyone could be reasonably sure it would remain a secret. But thanks to home DNA test kits and the internet, those days are over.

Men and women who didn’t know they were conceived with a sperm donor are unexpectedly turning up the family secret when they take DNA tests for fun, for genealogy research or other reasons.

A New York state man who supplied his sperm for a lesbian couple’s at-home insemination was denied a paternity test by a state appeals court last week, possibly ending his battle for parental rights over the now 3-year-old girl who was born as a result of his donation.